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Thursday, September 12, 2013

John "Jack" Winchester Holman

John Winchester "Jack"
Holman was born on 12 Sep 1871 in Indianapolis, Indiana His parents were Aaron
John Holman and Elizabeth L. Winchester. The Holman side of family dates back
to a land deed in Virginia in the 1620's. They had some Scottish blood and were
among the early English colonists.

John "Jack" Winchester Holman
(from "Our Archipelago")

Jack was
living in Boston during his early years and clerked in a cigar store during
this time. Jack was educated informally and did not have advantage of high
school or college education.

In 1900
he resided at 418 Oakdale Avenue in Chicago, Illinois

In 1908,
Jack suffered his first heart attack. He was returning to Chicago from New York
on the 20th century (train). His convalescence was in the four poster bed where
his son, William Winchester would be born in 1910. The bed later went to the
family’s summer home in Nova Scotia.

By 1911 Jack
purchased the building at 540-542 Roscoe Street Chicago, Illinois. He had the
financial backing of his mother-in-law, Catherine Seeley Fitz-Allen in order to
build the three-story building, containing six apartments. It was considered
luxurious.

He was a
western advertising executive for a number of trade journals While attending a
trade convention at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver, CO, he asked his wife
whether she thought they should start their own trade journal. She agreed and
Mining World magazine was “born.” After John's death, Katherine sold the
magazine to McGraw-Hill who published it under the name Mining and Engineering
World. The magazine became one of McGraw-Hill's strongest properties.

Jack was described as a heavy-set, gregarious
person of enormous charm and popularity. He was also described as a great raconteur with the
gift of using many dialects. It was said that he enjoyed and lived life fully.

Jack was
a member of the Chicago Athletic Association, a stronghold of Republicanism and
Chicago society. He generally held Republican views. There is a photograph of
John and President William Howard Taft standing by his side, along with the
Secretary of State and some other officials and secret service men. (Location
of this photo is unknown – if someone reading this knows where the photo is,
let me know. I’d love to scan it and add it to this post!)

Jack was
also a rabid White Sox fan.

Jack
died from heart failure on May 10 1916
at the early age of 44.

Some of
the information for this post came from the Sons of the American Revolution
application filed by Jack’s son, John in 1972. The application was approved.
Additional information was taken from “Our Archipelago”, a family history book written
by William Winchester Holman (with Dorothy Setchel Holman) as a Christmas gift
for the family. December 1976.